Film Review - V for Vendetta

Film Review - V for Vendetta Essay

The film V for Vendetta is based upon the graphic novel which goes by the same name, written by Alan Moore. The main characters in the film:
Natalie Portman plays Evey Hammond,                        John Hurt plays Adam Sutler,
Hugo Weaving plays V,                                                Tim Piggot-Smith plays Creedy,
Stephen Rea plays Eric Finch,                                      Rupert Graves plays Dominic,
Stephen Fry plays Dietrich,                                           Roger Allam plays Lewis Prothero.

V for Vendetta is set in a future dystopian society in which people live in a totalitarian country (England) and are oppressed by the government.

The film comes under the thriller genre, involving a lot of fast paced action along with suspension, violence is also included at various points, but is not focused on through the use of gore differing it as thriller rather than a horror. Along with this, the plot of the film is centred on tension and characters are introduced through suspenseful situations. For example the character of V is introduced as he rescues Evey from being raped.

The film has the typical type of Hollywood style of shooting using high quality cameras, and different aerial views of places, for example shots of Big Ben are taken from the sky as an outsider view of it. A lot of high quality filming was enabled due to the high product budget of $54 million, and fake explosions that take place in the film are enabled to seem very realistic due to the graphic quality and editing used. Obviously like many films, parts of the film are filmed over a period of time, but it is edited well as when watching the film it is evident it has been put together well. Colours used in V for Vendetta, seem to at times represent the current mood of a certain scene. A bright orange colour represents the explosion of Big Ben at the end; perhaps to represent all the pain, death and oppression suffered that has led to the revolution which is visually represented with the explosion.

V is portrayed as mysterious at the start and the plot of the film revolves around his back-story and up to his death the audience are still discovering things about V. This keeps the audience engaged in the story as V’s motive for terrorism is only revealed late on in the film keeping people curious. Also V for Vendetta is able to be quite a unique film even though it has been influenced by many real life events. For example, the persecution of a lesbian character Valery in the film is drawn from Nazi persecutions of homosexuals during their reign.

Freedom is something heavily referred to in this film. It challenges the totalitarian state system and the theme is linked in with different things. For example the use of propaganda by the government in the film makes people think a certain way and have little mental freedom. The theme of terrorism is a big part of the plot, due to this being the main objective for V to achieve. It raises the question of whether terrorists are freedom fighters or anarchists.

The main message for me gained out the film is based on Evey when she says ‘He was all of us’, in referring to V when he dies. This being that V represented normal people all those who are oppressed by their governments and victims of totalitarianism. From this I believe it highlights the importance of unity within people. In addition to this, all those who were the oppressors or were part of the totalitarian government were brutally murdered. V was also murdered which gives an impression his judgement was also deserved. This gives a message of what goes around comes around; along with that no-one escapes judgement.

References:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_%28film%29
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=vforvendetta.htm